| Professor Dr. Heinz Berke Anorganisch Chemisches Institut der Universität Zürich Winterthurerstrasse 190 CH-8057 ZÜRICH, Switzerland Phone +(0)1 635 4681 FAX +(0)1 635 6802 e-mail hberke@aci.unizh.ch |
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Heinz Berke received his Diploma in chemistry at the Universiy of Erlangen in 1971
and his Ph.D. from the University of Tübingen in 1974. Apart from a short stay in the
laboratory of R. Hoffmann at Cornell University 1977, he was at the University of Konstanz
from 1974-1988. He finished his habilitation in 1981, and in 1983 was awarded the Heisenberg
Fellowship from the Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft and the Dozentenpreis
of the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie . He was promoted to professor at the
University of Konstanz in 1987, before joining the University of Zürich in 1988.
H. Berke's research activities cover various fields of organometallic chemistry. Major
efforts are devoted to the area of transition metal hydrides, which is related to
homogenous catalysis as well as to biology. A tuning of the metal-hydrogen bond strength
and bond polarity is expected to lead to activated and reactive compounds. Also under
study is organometallic chemistry useful for enantioselective C,C coupling reactions
mediated by transition-metal complexes, as well as metallacumulenes, where carbon based
units are sought to bridge transition-metal centers.